World

March 21, 2005

By Compiled from wire service reports by Robert Kilborn and Ross Atkin

Warnings of more violence were sounded in Lebanon after a car bomb exploded in a Christian neighborhood of Beirut after midnight Friday, wounding 11 people and causing extensive property damage. Suspicion fell on pro-Syrian security agencies on grounds that such attacks could be used to argue the need for the return of Syria's Army troops. After the blast, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud canceled plans to attend this week's Arab summit in Algeria and called for dialogue between pro- and anti-Syrian political forces. But the latter refused, with a spokesman saying: "It's too late. This subject is closed."

Investigators pored over the wreckage of a theater in Qatar for clues that Al Qaeda may have been behind a car bomb explosion Saturday night that killed a British national and hurt 12 other playgoers. The attack came after the purported Al Qaeda chief in the normally quiet country urged the targeting of Western interests there and in other Persian Gulf states allied with the US.

Turmoil reigned across Pakis-tan as a bomb exploded in the midst of a Shiite Muslim celebration, and tens of thousands of protesters demanded that pro-US President Pervez Musharraf resign. Meanwhile, helicopters were ferrying supplies to an Army garrison in volatile Baluchistan Province that is surrounded by armed tribesmen in a standoff over allocation of revenues from its natural gas fields. There appeared to be no obvious motive for the explosion, which also came in Baluchistan, killing 30 people and wounding 20 others.

Weeks of public protests over the allegedly rigged national election in Kyrgyzstan erupted into violence Sunday, with demonstrators hurling rocks at government buildings and police responding with gunfire to keep them at bay. An estimated 10,000 people demanded the resignation of President Askar Aliyev, whose political allies overwhelmingly won the Feb. 27 vote for seats in parliament. Aliyev's government said it was ready for negotiations with the protesters if that would end the violence.

A powerful earthquake rocked southern Japan, killing at least one person and injuring hundreds of others. The magnitude 7.0 quake also toppled houses, snapped utility lines, and caused the evacuation of thousands of residents of the affected area. The quake triggered a tsunami warning as well, although that was later canceled.